Get Into James Shorts - 22. Star Dust

Stardust

Seth was a little nervous returning to the clinic. The doctor had found some anomalous results in his tests and wanted to see him again.

Doctor Harris had said it was probably nothing to worry about, but that sort of equivocation is guaranteed to cause anyone anxiety.

As he approached the clinic it was late afternoon, but there was very little traffic. No one was at the sidewalk café next door. He looked across the street to the bank, and it was also quiet.

There was nothing at all on the block but two big vans with orange warning cones surrounding an open manhole.

Seth thought nothing of it and walked through the front entrance of the clinic. It was empty, so he walked to the front desk.

The receptionist Judy was sitting inside the glass and looked up.

She didn't open the glass and said, "Seth, Doctor Harris will see you in exam one. It's the first door on the right."

Seth was a little put off. No nurse to lead him in. Humph.

He walked through the door and into the room marked Exam 1. He sat in a chair next to the exam table and waited for the doctor.

Seth noticed the Sporting News 2016 NFL Draft Preview issue. In short order he was looking at the best available corner backs and safeties in the draft- and was completely confident that his favorite team would carefully pick a defensive back that couldn't cover an old lady on a walker.

The door opened and Seth looked up. He saw a man in a blue biohazard suit raise an automatic pistol. There was a muffled sput sound, and he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He looked down, saw a dart and passed out.

*     *     *     *     *     *

Seth woke up in a small room on a bed. He found that he was dressed in light blue hospital scrubs. He looked around the room and saw a nightstand and lamp, dresser-drawers and a matching mirror. There was a television screen and an area with a sink that he assumed was a bathroom.

As he began to stir, the television came to life.

"On May 14th of the past year there was an unprecedented meteor storm. It lasted for many hours and was seen almost worldwide."

"We soon discovered that there was organic residue in those meteors that made it to the ground in the form of unusual proteins."

"The impact of this was not immediately apparent. It took some months for the first cases of infection to manifest themselves.

"Approximately one in twenty-five thousand people have been infected with an extraterrestrial prion.

"We do not know what it is eventually going to do, but it is changing people. It is rewriting their DNA which is the reason for the symptoms that you have recently experienced.

"At this time I ask that you get up and look at your eyes in the mirror."

Seth stood up muttering and walked to the bathroom sink. It had a small tray with cups in plastic wrap. He turned on the water, ripped a cup out of its wrapping and took a drink.

When he looked in the mirror he noticed that the pupils of his eyes were cat-like slits.

Seth saw in his very own face an alien looking back at him.